Robotic drones can herd birds away from airspaces

London: Scientists have developed an algorithm that enables a flying drone to herd a flock of birds away from a designated airspace without breaking their formation.

Researchers from Imperial College London in the UK and California Institute of Technology in the US investigated the problem of diverting a flock of birds away from a prescribed area, such as an airport, using a robotic unmanned aerial vehicle.

The team developed the herding algorithm on the basis of macroscopic properties of the flocking model and the response of the flock. They tested their robotic autonomous drone by successfully shepherding an entire flock of birds out of a designated airspace in South Korea.

"It is quite interesting, and even awe-inspiring, to monitor how birds react to threats and collectively behave against threatening objects through the flock," said David Hyunchul Shim, a professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). "We made careful observations of flock dynamics and interactions between flocks and the pursuer. This allowed us to create a new herding algorithm for ideal flight paths for incoming drones to move the flock away from a protected airspace," said Shim.